Matthew 22
1 Jesus spoke up and spoke to them again in parables:
2 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who held a wedding feast for his son.
3 He sent his servants to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.
4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: “Look, I have prepared my banquet; my oxen and fattened animals have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’
5 But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own field, another to his business.
6 The others seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.
7 The king became angry and, sending his troops, destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.
8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.
9 So go to the crossroads and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast.’
10 Those servants went out along the roads and gathered everyone they found, both bad and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests seated at the table.
11 When the king came in to see those seated at the table, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
12 He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But the man was silent.
13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Tie his feet and hands and throw him into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and grinding of teeth there.’
14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to trap him in something he said.
16 They sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, to say, “Teacher, we know that you are truthful and teach God’s way truthfully. You are not concerned with anyone, for you do not look at people’s appearance.
17 So tell us: What do you think? Is it lawful to pay the tax to Caesar or not?”
18 Jesus recognized their malice and said, “Why are you testing me, hypocrites?
19 Show me the tax coin.” They brought him a denarius.
20 He asked them, “Whose image and inscription are these?”
21 They answered, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “So give Caesar what is Caesar’s, and God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away.
23 That day, some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him:
24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If someone dies without children, his brother will marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.’
25 There were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and since he had no offspring, he left his wife to his brother.
26 The same happened with the second and the third, all the way to the seventh.
27 Last of all, the woman died.
28 At the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be among the seven? For they all had her as their wife.”
29 Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
30 For at the resurrection, people neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said to you:
32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
35 One of them, an expert in the Law, asked him a question to test him:
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 He answered him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them:
42 “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They answered him, “David’s.”
43 He said to them, “How then does David, in the Spirit, call him Lord? He says:
44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”’
45 If David calls him Lord, then how is he his son?”
46 No one could answer him a word, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
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